Carrier applicator

Abstract

Plastic carriers are automatically applied to sets of containers by placing the carriers on the containers with recesses in the carrier aligned with the tops of the containers. Each recess is provided with a plurality of container engaging protrusions adapted to be seated below flanges on the containers. Sets of upstanding discs are situated to exert progressively increasing forces on the carrier top surface to seat the protrusions. A final set of concave discs are deformed in accordance with the curvature of the containers in order to insure sufficient contact between the disc rims and the narrow shoulder along the outer periphery of the carrier top surface, such that the container engaging projections adjacent to the shoulder are properly seated.

I claim: 
     
       1. Apparatus for applying a carrier to a pair of upstanding containers each having a neck with a flange, the carrier having means adapted to engage the neck of each container below the flange thereon, the apparatus comprising means for placing a carrier on the containers with the engaging means aligned with the necks of the containers, means for seating the engaging means below the flanges and means for supporting and moving the containers, with the carrier thereon, relative to said seating means, said seating means comprising first and second discs, each having a substantially continuous deformable periphery, and means for mounting said discs in spaced relation such that their respective peripheries are separated by a distance less than the distance between the outer peripheries of the flanges, but great enough to permit the flanges to pass therebetween, as the containers are moved relative to said seating means, each flange deforming the periphery of a different disc and each disc periphery exerting a force, towards said moving means, on the carrier at a location thereon adjacent the outer periphery of the respective flange. 
     
     
       2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of said first and second disc peripheries comprises a concave interior wall. 
     
     
       3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein each of said walls is engaged by the outer periphery of a different one of the flanges. 
     
     
       4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said first and second discs are co-axially aligned. 
     
     
       5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said first and second discs are rotatably mounted. 
     
     
       6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier has an exterior shoulder situated adjacent said engaging means and wherein said location comprises said shoulder. 
     
     
       7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said first and second discs are upstanding. 
     
     
       8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said first and second discs are substantially parallelly situated. 
     
     
       9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said seating means further comprises first and said second disc sets, and means for mounting said first and second disc sets, in succession, upstream of said first and second discs along said moving means, said second disc set being mounted closer to said moving means than said first disc set. 
     
     
       10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein each of said first and said second disc sets comprises four substantially parallelly situated, spaced, deformable discs.